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Ice Assistance Emergency Program

Backgrounder

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) will provide financial assistance, through the Ice Assistance Emergency Program, to eligible fish harvesters in affected areas of Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec who have been prevented or delayed from fishing because of ice conditions in their fishing areas. Assistance payments will be issued by Service Canada to eligible recipients on behalf of DFO.

May 2019

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) will provide financial assistance, through the Ice Assistance Emergency Program, to eligible fish harvesters in affected areas of Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec who have been prevented or delayed from fishing because of ice conditions in their fishing areas. Assistance payments will be issued by Service Canada to eligible recipients on behalf of DFO.

Fish harvesters whose EI Fishing Benefits have ended may experience a prolonged period of time without any source of fishing-related income because they could not safely leave port. The Ice Assistance Emergency Program was created to help alleviate the financial hardships faced by the affected fish harvesters. This is a special grant program provided by DFO and is not an extension of EI benefits.

In order to be eligible, applicants need to fish out of a port in the ice-affected areas; must have established and exhausted an EI Fishing Benefits claim based on their fishing activity in 2018, and must not currently be eligible for or be receiving any EI benefits.

Amount:

Fish harvesters will be eligible for up to $508 per week. Fish harvesters may become eligible for the grant two weeks following their 2018 EI Fishing Benefits end date but not before the start of the program period in their affected area.

Fishing earnings in the program period (including sealing), but not other income, will be deducted from the ice assistance payments dollar-for-dollar from the week they are earned and from subsequent weeks of the program.